Upper floor of Hofbräuhaus

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Hofbräuhaus which is a brewery owned by the Bavarian state government, was founded in 1589 by the Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm V. The beer quickly became world famous thanks to the first brewer, Heimeran Pongratz. In fact, the beer became so famous that it once saved the city from annihilation. When King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden invaded Bavaria, he agreed to leave the city in peace if the citizens surrendered some hostages, and 600,000 barrels of Hofbräuhaus beer. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived around the block from the famous beer hall in the late eighteenth century. In a poem he wrote, Mozart claimed to have written the opera Idomeneo after several visits to the Hofbräuhaus fortified him for the task. Vladimir Lenin lived in Munich and reportedly visited the Hofbräuhaus on a regular basis. In 1919, the Munich Communist government set up headquarters in the famous beer hall, and in 1920 Adolf Hitler and the National Socialists held their first meeting in the Festsaal, the Festival Room, on this hall.